Going through the Motions
by NickyJ2
Summary: Fairy tales always end in happily ever after. But there's a reason their called fairy tales.


Hey guys

**Hey guys!! This is most definitely a one shot. Just getting a fact straight, I'm am a True Love Waits person myself, so I don't necessarily approve of what the characters are doing, but this was an idea I had. Hope you like!! Reviews are like chocolate…and who doesn't love chocolate?? **

**Cheesy, I know. **

She looked up at the TV, watching again as their faces were plastered across her television. The lights threw shadows over the walls of her constantly dark room. Grimacing as they answered question after question about their personal lives, with huge smiles plastered across their faces.

And wiping away the tears that arrived when they all declared their relationship status yet again.

**Single.**

Getting up, she turned off the TV. Blindly stumbling to her desk in the dark, she groped for a piece of paper and a pen. Training her eyes on her desk, she reached up and clicked on the wall lamp, refusing to look anywhere else. Refusing to let her eyes fall on the posters that were ever present on her walls.

It was the same routine, day after day. Wake up. Stare at the floor. Go through the motions at school. Make up excuses to stay out of the house until dark. Come home. Turn on the TV. Put herself through agony for half an hour. Write a letter.

Constantly just going through the motions.

She hadn't always been this strange lifeless human being, this shell of herself. She had once been full of life, full of hope. And in love.

Looking back she realized, it had always been that way. And even though she regretted the day she ran across the playground and tried to wrestle the swings away from the three unsuspecting boys, she wouldn't change it. Because it had changed her.

From that moment they were inseparable. She was full of fun, and they couldn't get enough of her. They weren't the most popular at school, and they weren't the most liked, but she wouldn't trade them for the world. They had been her world.

And she knew they cared for her. They chased away every bully, cheered up every upset day. And talked her through ever minute crush.

Through it all, there was one who pulled through, one who shone just a bit brighter than just the other too. He always went that extra inch, said that one extra word, and gave her that one extra smile. Over the years, they all added up to the point where with every touch, every hug and every chaste kiss on the cheek, her heart fluttered and her breath sputtered and for just a second, the world stopped spinning.

She treasured the small moments, the double sided comments. The fact that he would look at any boy who touched her or offered her a drink like they were crazy and way out of line. And when boys started asking her out, or paying her special attention, it always made her smile when girlfriends would tell her how he went up to them and gave them a talk.

Warned them not to hurt her.

These were the little things she looked back on now, even though it hurt so much. Even though it almost made her more sad than happy. She wouldn't be the same without them.

When it had finally become too much, she had crumbled. Her feelings were finally too much, so over the top that it was impossible to be around him without becoming ecstatically happy, impossible to see him with other girls without getting insanely jealous.

It had been a stormy night, with clouds covering the moon. It broke free every so often, and it wasn't long before a misty rain covered them both. She had started shivering, and being the gentleman he was had given her his sweatshirt. It hadn't helped much, but it had been another moment, and she really wasn't complaining. After all, it was something of his.

He was talking about something or another, but she was finding it hard to concentrate. Whenever the moonlight DID break through the clouds, it hit his face perfectly, and he looked even more amazing to her than usual.

She had gotten up, not realizing he was still talking until he stopped mid sentence and looked at her in confusion. She had opened her mouth and told him everything he meant to her, everything he did to her, everything that mattered. And she had waited.

And he hadn't said anything.

She had been thankful for the rain, because she hoped he wouldn't be able to see her crying. She had halfheartedly mumbled a goodbye that her four year old brother would have been able to see through, and run.

When she heard footsteps behind her she just ran faster, but his legs were longer and it wasn't hard for him to catch her. She had struggled and fought, but he was stronger too. And when she was tired of fighting, she had yelled. She only stopped when he cut her off.

With a kiss.

To this day, nothing in her life could compare with that moment. All her arguments and accusations had come crashing down around her ears, all her insecurities had flown out of her head, and she had kissed him back with all that she had and all that she was.

And when he leaned down and, breathing ragged, whispered those three words in her ear, she sobbed against his shoulder from pure happiness.

_I love you._

After that they had just grown closer. Him and his brothers had developed a fascination with music, and she had supported them every step of the way. She had always believed they were gifted. And she stayed by them through the ups and the downs through everything that happened.

When they signed their first record deal, and the first cd came out, she had hugged every single one of them, and they had spent an entire night in the back yard celebrating by eating ice cream and camping out.

And when they were dropped she had cried for them, because they wouldn't. She had convinced them to try again, to never give up. She had been insistent on the subject.

Stupidly so.

And they had. She had cheered and yelled from the excitement when the second CD took off so well. If anything she was more excited than they were. But when the first tour came around, it had hit home.

All the fan girls, all the love and adoration. It was all out there. And all she had against it was herself. But when he looked at her and said that it was all for her, that it was her he would be calling, that it was her he loved, he had chased all the fears away. He was her knight in shining armor, and she would never laugh at the fairy tales again.

They talked every single night, and even though it made her miss him even more at times. She was thankful to Miley for giving her boys their chance, even though she thought the girl could keep her hands to herself a little bit more. Because even though she knew it was selfish and irrational, they were hers.

When they had come home it had been the reunion to end all reunions. Between the hugs, kisses, and general emotions, his promise ring ended up forgotten. And then it was hers, and when she was alone in her house she still wore it around her neck, on the same silver chain he had presented it to her on.

It had been hard telling his brothers, and then his parents. Disappointment was evident, but that was a given. And she wouldn't take a second back. She was happy and hopeful, filled with thoughts of their future, of their lives together.

And things had changed.

They had been so busy, and she had understood. They ran from photo shoots to interviews to tapings, all faster than they could handle. And she didn't say a word. She made the most of the time she got with her love, and constantly thought of him the rest.

But the phone calls stopped coming so frequently. She talked more to her brothers than she talked to him. He stopped visiting, and they finally stopped coming home. She spent nights at a time, waiting by the phone. Because as pathetic as she knew it was, she was praying for it to ring.

The final blow had been a single television interview. Thirty minutes of information, designed to comfort and inform their fans of who they were, and where they stood. She watched it happily, since she had been busy lately, she didn't have as much time to watch them as she used to. She had laughed along with every joke, smiled with every smile, and watched lovingly as she recognized every hand movement and every spontaneous gesture that he made.

And then came the question. Silly really, it was a simple yes or no, and yet the answer had the power to send her world crashing around her.

_Are you seeing someone?? _

_No….._

She had been unable to think, practically unable to feel. She had left message after message on his phone, thought about him even more than normal. Through it all she gathered all her memories around her, and they became her security blanket. Her fall back.

Then one day, she had come home to a blinking light on her answering machine. And in 195 seconds, he shattered every dream, every hope and every memory that she held dear. And it all revolved around one sentence.

_I'm sorry, but….._

She had been out of control, running into her room and ripping pictures and posters off the wall, before falling to the floor in a trembling mess. Finally getting up who knows how much later, and putting every single one of the back. Finding that even though she was upset and her heart was breaking, she couldn't bear to have them gone. They had been her light for too long.

But it was too painful to look at them. So the lights stayed off. And her eyes stayed on the ground. Just knowing that they were still there, somewhere made a difference.

She received two calls in the next week, but neither was from the person she needed to hear from the most. His brothers told her they were sorry and that they missed her, and it warmed her just a bit.

But they weren't him.

And a month later, they twisted the knife in her heart, looping his name together with another girl's. Calling them the ultimate couple, the sweetest of the sweet. And through it all she screamed to herself mentally _but they aren't!!_

_We were…._

It hurt to bad to move, and most days she didn't. Her parents begged and pleaded, but she couldn't do it. Her friends dwindled away until only a handful were left, and they held her through the nights as she cried and sobbed, and woke up as she had nightmare after nightmare.

She was broken, damaged goods. And the worst of it was knowing that he more than likely didn't care. That he didn't remember enough to call her for 5 seconds, and let her know that he still loved her. That he still wanted her.

That he cared that she was lost. That she was at the lowest of the low. And that he had this effect on her.

Snapping back to the present, she found herself trembling, choking back silent tears, hands clenched against the bedpost. She curled up in a ball as memory after memory assaulted her. This was her bed, where it had happened, and the events of their night when they had finally become one person played over and over in her head. And brought her back to consciousness screaming.

She fought to regain control, even though she knew it was a losing fight. She had tried time and time again. She waited and waited, and finally the shaking stopped. Taking her letter, she slid it into an envelope….and stuffed it into the overflowing drawer under her bed. Just like every other letter she had ever written him.

Maybe someday he would read them. If he ever cared enough to know what she was thinking, what she had been feeling. And how much her heart ached for him, even after the last two years.

Walking over to her phone by the bed, she opened it and dialed a number she knew by heart. He didn't pick up, but she had known he wouldn't. Her voice scratchy, she left him the same message she had left him every night for the last two years.

"It's me. I'm still here. And I love you."

He would know who it was.

**Okay! A little morbid than I usually write…but I wanted a change from just happy, happy, happy. So I wrote this. **

**Please please PLEASE! Review! **

**Let me know what you think.**


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